Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-23
A BLOODY CONFESSION.
The Mystery Surrounding the Murder
or the Sell Family Near Erie,
Kan, Solved.
The Boy Willie Confesses to Killing His
Mother, Brother and S'ster-The
Cause of tho Trouble.

OI. hOUlOg NlO.g NIRl III IL W III NC
recollected that a year ago this month
ono of the bloodiest murders, or rather
butcheries OF human beings, known to the
annals of crime was committed neEr
Erie, Kan. j. W. Sell, well-to-do
farmer, and his whole family excepting
one son, Willie, boy sixteen yesrs old,
were found murdered, their heads being
crushed and their throaLs cut from ear to
ear. On chair in the room were found
d hatchet and butcher knife, belonging to
the family, with which the bloody work
had been done, aud the boy Willie was
found TO be covered with blood
from head to foot He was
accordingly arrested, charged with the
crime, and AT the July term Otq the Dis
trict court Of 1886 he Was tried, convict
ed Of murder in the first degree, and SEN
fenced to be hanged, and in conformity to
the laws OF that state he is now in the
penitentiarY, awaiting the signature Of
the Governor TO the death warrant.
There has always bean great diversity
of opinion among the people as t. whether
Willie Sell committed the murder. On
the trial there was no positive evidence,
auG the state utterly failed to fad any
motive for the crime. Ga the contrary, 1t
was proved that Willie was an exception
ally good boy end that he and his sister
Ida were more than commonly fond of
each other. The neignbOrs all sWore TO
| the boys good disposition and that he
was a favUrite in the community while
his brother, Watty; who was older than
he, was not so generally liked. The mat
! ter, however, seems to be set at rest, for
q statement is printed to-day IN the dis
patches from Erie that the boy, after sys-
tematic urging and pressing on the part
/ of Hon. J. H. Woods, his guardian, and
! his attorneys, has made confession
which fits SO exactly to the facts and Cir
cumstances brought out at the trial that
| it settles the case definitely. The con-
/ fessOn is in substance as follows: My
mother and sister Ida had gone to bed.
Father, Watty and were still up when
the calves got out and came up around
the house. Watty sat at the table read
ing and father had just taken mis-
coat ard pants off to go to
bed and told Watty to go and
pit the calves up. He said: Let
Willie do it. won't go out now Faith
Ter said that he should go, and Watty did
.EnOt want to, and while they were talking,
l went out and got the hatche, which
was sticking in log of wood outside the
door, and came back to see if Watty
would 90 out with me. got the Ratchet
| to nail up the calf pen. Father and Watty
were there quarrehing and became
very mad. When l came in where
| they were with the Ratchet Watty
snatChed it out of my hand and struck
| father several tines, at last knocking him
down. When l saw what Watty had done
caught hold of the Ratchet and jerked
| it out of his hand, and striking at Wstty
! hit him on the head and he
fell TO the floor, and l sup
pose that killed him. Then mother,
seeing what was being done, jumped out
of bed screaming, and before l thought
what l was doing l struck her. Annie,
my sister, at this raised up in bed and
screamed, and | don't know why l did it,
| but l struck her with the Ratchet and she
fell back. They were al lying quiet.
took of my clothes, except
my shirt and drawers. l then
pulled off Watty's pants, raised
him up and carried him into the other
room and put him into our bed. After
that l went back and got the Ratchet and
pounded his head all TO pieces. l felt
! mad at Watty because he mad KILLED
father. l went to the cupboard and got
the butcher knife and cut Watty's head
nearly off. Then went into the other
room and sat down, and 1 did not
know what to do. Then thought if any
| Of them should come to life they would
say Killed Watty, Sd took the butcher
knife and cut their Threats to make sure
work of it. l then blew out the lamp and
sat down for several hours, but at last
could not stand it any longer. l again lit
the lamp, and putting on my clothes, ran
over TO Mr.. Mendalls and told him that
some one was at our house with Ratchet
and had burt pa and MAJ